Entries tagged with yuletide

Man, what a lovely Yuletide I've had! My glorious Dark Matter gifts were the intense and perfectly in-character Cycle (Three/Six) by days4daisy and the lovely little drabble Evolution (Three/Android) by meridian_rose; the spectacular and twisty Collision Course (Kira/Pop Girl) was written for me in Push by eustaciavye; AND ALSO I received the charming and heartwarming Two Gardens (hints of Mara/Inanni) from abluestocking for Mara - Daughter of the Nile! Such spectacular variety, in fandoms and moods and pairings, and such wonderful fics! ♥

As for me, I wrote:

The Beast Within (16058 words) by DamkiannaFandom:Sinbad (TV)Rating: General AudiencesWarnings: No Archive Warnings ApplyRelationships: Gunnar/Sinbad (Sinbad)Characters: Gunnar (Sinbad), Sinbad (Sinbad), Rina (Sinbad), Anwar (Sinbad), Tiger (Sinbad), Cook (Sinbad), Nala (Sinbad)Additional Tags: Animal Transformation, Mutual Pining, Nonverbal Communication, Post-CanonSummary: There had not been time, Gunnar told himself afterward; there had not been any other way. But it was not true. There was always a choice. (Or: Gunnar is a werebear. Sinbad has some issues with this; and, as it turns out, so does Gunnar.)

I offer Sinbad every time it's in the tagset because god help me, I love that show. And lo, all my Yuletide wishes were granted: I MATCHED Dorinda! Someday I'm actually going to finish all the treats I've ever started for Dorinda, and she's going to get a boatload of NYRs. But in the meantime, the Yulegoat was generous enough to give me an official opportunity to write her a story!

How is it the 27th already? What? WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE. (Just kidding, I know the answer: it was sucked down a rabbit hole of Star Wars. We went to see Rogue One on Christmas Eve, came home and watched ANH, and then decided to go in flashback order. Which means ESB and AotC on Christmas Day, and then RotS, RotJ, and TFA yesterday. And I'm glad we ended on Carrie Fisher's return to Star Wars, as a way to say goodbye. ♥)

November was all NANO NANO NANO, and now we've flopped into December and I've swapped to YULETIDE YULETIDE YULETIDE. :D :D :D

I'm THISCLOSE to completing my totally amazing assignment, woooooo, which will hopefully make me feel less guilty about somehow already having TWO GIFTS??? One Madness, one main collection, and tentative present-shaking indicates I am YET AGAIN going to have an amazing Yuletide.

I CAN ONLY HOPE MY RECIP WILL FEEL THE SAME WAY /o\

But as my brain's being eaten by bears, I haven't had much left for actual canon consumption lately. I've been hugely enjoying Lucifer and Elementary; tentatively still watching Blindspot, though it's starting to feel a little bit like the wheels are coming off; and mostly just mocking Timeless, which is trying a lot of things but IMO isn't really succeeding at them. (I wouldn't really care how bad the episode plots were if I loved the characters, but that show is seriously not managing to convince me that its main characters are a team or even friends. I WANT TO BELIEVE. THIS IS NOT A HARD SELL. And yet.)

Our Christmas was Star Wars and our New Year was Man from UNCLE, so I have had a lovely shiny fast-moving holiday season! :D

As it turns out, I received the lovely Serendipity (25k Irulan/Chani AU! BE STILL MY HEART) from Tamoline! I have no idea what I did to deserve such a tremendous gift, but it's everything I could possibly have hoped for and then some. ♥ And! My ecstatically wonderful Hellboy OT3 gift, some bright equation, was the work of none other than Liviapenn, which I was not expecting AT ALL. (I regret absolutely none of my comment's effusiveness, but I do feel a little silly. Like, of course it was great, it was Liviapenn.)

And! I wrote:

The Sword in the Stone (14148 words) by DamkiannaFandom:CrusadeRating: Teen And Up AudiencesWarnings: No Archive Warnings ApplyCharacters: Dureena Nafeel, Matthew Gideon, Galen (Crusade), Sarah Chambers, John Matheson, Max Eilerson, Original CharactersAdditional Tags: Alien Technology, Psychic Violence, Post-Canon, End of the WorldSummary: Lieutenant Matheson had a headache. Post-canon: the crew of the Excalibur discovers a magic sword, Galen is cryptic, and Dureena has a lot of feelings.

I offered Crusade COMPLETELY on a whim, having had something of a B5 renaissance this year, and lucked out by matching to ArisTGD, who had an inspiring but also extremely flexible prompt about Dureena, Galen, and a sword. :D The more I thought about this one, the more I wanted to make kind of an episode out of it; and I did my best to pack it full of JMS-y themes (religion! ends and beginnings! weighing costs and making choices!). It was a delight to write and a great excuse to rewatch the show (again), and basically I'm just very lucky with my assignments. \o/ MAN YULETIDE IS AWESOME.

WHAT AN ECSTATICALLY WONDERFUL YEAR. I'll be going through the archive properly this afternoon and tomorrow, with Christmas and family and STAR WARS having taken up basically all my time off so far, but I have absolutely made time to read my gifts! MY GIFTS.

Serendipity (25771 words)Fandom:Dune - All Media TypesRating: Teen And Up AudiencesWarnings: Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceRelationships: Chani/Irulan CorrinoCharacters: Irulan Corrino, Chani, Lady Jessica, Leto Atreides IAdditional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, A certain amount of politicking, A certain amount of stabbing, Paul Atreides and the planet Dune will hardly be appearing in this ficSummary: Duke Leto survives his arrival on Arrakis, allies with the Fremen and forces a compromise with the Padishah Emperor. Five years later, Irulan - still unmarried - is summoned from her near exile on Dune as Imperial Observer to testify before the High Council of the Landsraad. Naturally, not all is as it seems. But the actions of the right woman in the right place at the right time can make all the difference.

This is an absolutely EPIC Irulan/Chani AU with completely accurate tags. The central premise is actually kind of fantastically tropey, Chani as Irulan's grudging bodyguard and then they slowly get to know each other and it's not so grudging and also bodyguard if-you-know-what-I-mean; but it is executed with such care and such Dunelike awareness of all the ripples and complexities and consequences. Just lovely!

This fic! This fic is absolutely everything I could never have hoped to receive based on the completely useless "or give me HB/John/Liz, if you want!" prompt I chucked into my letter. I love the Liz voice, I love the understated triangle of pining and caring and TEAM, I love the resolution. I JUST LOVE THIS WHOLE THING.

... is like the only fannish thing I've been successful in keeping up with! I'm behind on The Librarians (!), Major Crimes, Elementary, basically all the things. (Agents of Shield, idriya and I dropped way back at the beginning of S2 without even watching it up to the point of the death we were spoiled for that made us decide to drop it. Though I do still read commentary at times.) I'm kind of trying to work my way up to watching Jessica Jones; I may end up using Sense8 as a unicorn chaser, since I haven't watched that either.

BUT. YULETIDE. I've finished my assignment and am WAY happier with it than I was expecting to be, which is always a nice surprise—I wasn't sure I could really pull off what I was trying for, but I think (*crosses fingers*) I have. AND THEN a gift was posted for me! AND IF IT'S THE FIC I THINK IT IS (and it probably is) then I have NO WORDS TO EXPRESS HOW ECSTATIC I AM. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD Honestly I will be thrilled to read the fics so far in any of the fandoms I requested! BUT SERIOUSLY I AM SO EXCITE. OMG.

*off to write more treats to celebrate*

ETA 12/22: And now a second gift, which obviously got posted sometime in the last week! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHICH IS MY MAIN NOW. OMG I LOVE THEM BOTH ALREADY.

Happy 2015, to everybody celebrating a new year today! I don't know that I even can characterize my 2014 meaningfully, but it held multiple milestones for me personally, good and bad, and I hope I never forget to acknowledge and remember and recognize them—I hope I learned enough from them to make 2015 awesome.

My year in review in fannish terms mostly consists of KATARA KORRA KATARA KORRA KATARA KORRA YULETIDE. \o? Finishing LttE (AT LAST) was a tremendous feeling; the ending of Korra was everything I could reasonably have hoped for. And of course Yuletide reveals were last night!

I wrote four stories this year, in all. My assignment was not in any way what I was expecting to write:

one giant leap (3862 words) by DamkiannaFandom:The Dig (Video Game)Rating: General AudiencesWarnings: No Archive Warnings ApplyRelationships: Maggie Robbins/Boston LowCharacters: Maggie Robbins, Ludger Brink, Boston LowAdditional Tags: Post-CanonSummary: Two of the Cocytans come with them back to Earth. Post-game tag: after the adventure, they still have to get home. (Gen, with hints of Maggie/Boston.)

I didn't actually offer The Dig this year, but Three_Headed_Monkey asked for it; it was listed ahead of the fandom we actually matched on in my assignment email, and I saw it and HAD TO. There was zero Dig fic on the AO3 until I posted this (and as of this writing, there's two and Three_Headed_Monkey wrote the other), which makes it a Yuletide fandom if ever there was one. It was hilarious and strange and fascinating to watch an LP of The Dig after all this time (it came out in like 1995, that's TWENTY YEARS AGO)—the request was very open-ended but an idea came to me pretty quickly, and the actual writing went very well, so this was a real delight of an assignment overall. \o/ YAY YULETIDE.

And! damask_and_dark was the author of the transcendent and beautiful the moon a black hole in the blaze of night, which was my absolutely incredible main gift and everything I could not have known to hope for when I prompted for armored Snow White at the head of an army, breaking Ravenna out of her box. Gloriously in-character and yet so very kind to both Ravenna and Snow White, with the happy ending the movie couldn't have given Ravenna. ♥

As if that weren't enough to make my Yuletide all by itself, I also received the delightful post-B13:U Blood on the Dance Floor from gamerfic, who took my admittedly off-the-wall request for Lola/Tao (they don't even meet in canon!) and went MARVELOUS places with it! HOW AM I SO LUCKY. \o/

I have not in any way had a meaningful amount of time free to go through the archive, which means this weekend is going to be SO WORDS MUCH STORY VERY YULETIDE. But! I have had time to read (and then gleefully reread) both of my gifts:

the moon a black hole in the blaze of night (4142 words)Fandom:Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)Rating: MatureWarnings: No Archive Warnings ApplyRelationships: Ravenna/Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman)Characters: Ravenna (Snow White and the Huntsman), Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman)Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Misses Clause ChallengeSummary:There is no king, this time. When Ravenna tries to capture Snow White's kingdom, she is rescued by an armoured queen.

My main gift, and a GLORIOUS story that took my "Snow White is the one leading the army and breaking Ravenna out of her box" prompt and worked BEAUTIFUL MAGIC with it. It somehow manages to be simultaneously really in-character for Ravenna but also give her basically the happiest possible ending, and I love it.

The Lola/Tao treat I have ALWAYS WANTED but NEVER EVER EXPECTED to actually get, because asking for ladyslash where the women in question were never actually in the same movie can be something of a fool's errand. BUT SOMEHOW IT WORKED THIS YEAR. \o/ Lovely, a nice match to the tone of the movies, and with an ending full of potential.

And! YULETIDE. The deadline held no bears for me; I finished my assignment weeks ago and have been working on treats since. But TWO GIFTS (!!) were posted for me today and I am THRILLED. I only have timing coincidences to guide me when it comes to present-shaking, but whether I'm right about which fics are mine or not, the selection of stories in fandoms I requested is just SOLID GOLD this year and I am so happy. omg yay. TIME TO CHANNEL MY DELIGHT INTO MOAR TREATS. \o/

Maybe I'll just try to work my way up to posting twice a month, and see how that works out. /o\

femslashex happened! I wrote a Sinbad (Nala/Rina) treat for muccamukk, which is to say I've had an idea sitting half-written in my head since last femslashex, having watched Sinbad at all solely after reading muccamukk's letter that year, and then she asked for it again and this time I was able to write the story down fast enough to meet the deadline. \o/ One of these days I'm going to have to get around to a set of Sinbad posts - it's such an adorably terrible show! Things I enjoyed large parts of but really want to tweak are always the ones I get most fannish about. I'd do a recs post except I still haven't read everything I have open in tabs, but basically if you haven't checked the collection for anything in your fandoms, you totally should.

Not caught up yet on SHIELD; I'm also watching Forever and portions of Flash mostly for the hell of it, no real commentary to offer there.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo, but not precisely by the rules, because I'm counting words I write for Yuletide; so far this is working out well, and I may even wholly avoid bears this year. (My recipient and I could not have more divergent approaches to Yuletide if we were trying! This has proven exciting but wholly manageable, and as a bonus I should have plenty of time to edit my assignment/work on treats. \o/)

My assignment fic for movies_michelle, after very-much-needed edits, cracked 40k words! She asked for Gunnar/Sinbad and found family, and suggested the possibility of a reunion with Nala, and I grabbed all three of those things and SPRINTED INTO THE WILDS with them for forty thousand completely ridiculous words. movies_michelle was very gracious about her surprise novel, and even left me a comment when she was only partway through, just so I'd know she didn't hate it. ♥ She and I both only just watched Sinbad this year, and I'm really glad I offered it, because this story was great fun to write!

Twisted Princesses is rapidly becoming one of my favorite treating fandoms; I'm not confident enough in my ability to write horror on command to actually offer it, but when I get an idea that I think I can pull off, I love to write it. Maybe if I do it enough, I'll actually get good at darkfic someday!

As it turns out, the incredibly generous Niki wrote me BOTH my main gift, Home, and my fabulous Snow White and the Huntsman treat, Mirrored; and russian_blue wrote me One Spark, about Lola on the roof. I am so pleased and amazed that they chose to take the time to write me such wonderful stories! TELL ME WHAT I DID TO DESERVE THIS SO I CAN DO IT AGAIN.

Home (1465 words) by AnonymousChapters: 4/4Fandom:Banlieue 13 (Movies)Rating: Teen And Up AudiencesWarnings: No Archive Warnings ApplyRelationships: Leïto/Damien TomasoCharacters: Lola (Banlieue 13), Leïto (Banlieue 13), Damien TomasoAdditional Tags: Post-Movie(s), Addiction, Friendship, FamilySummary: Lola has never been a victim, she has always been a survivor.

My main gift, and I ADORE it - somehow it manages to span the space between the movies, B13:U, and then after B13:U in 1400 words, and it is LOLA and LEÏTO and DAMIEN and HELP I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH. Lola and Leïto struggle with Lola's addiction and get a little help from Damien, and then B13:U happens. And the fourth chapter is only three sentences long but it's ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN. ♥ Anon, whoever you are, this is everything I asked for and you should feel AMAZING.

One of the two marvelous treats that people chose to write for me even though they didn't have to because Yuletide is just beautiful that way. :D Short but totally perfect, a fantastic achy look at Lola on that roof with a gas can and a match. LOLA. HEARTS IN MY EYES.

Mirrored (753 words) by AnonymousChapters: 1/1Fandom:Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)Rating: General AudiencesWarnings: No Archive Warnings ApplyCharacters: Snow White (Snow White and the Huntsman), Ravenna (Snow White and the Huntsman)Additional Tags: IntrospectionSummary: Snow White used to imagine conversions she might have with the Queen.

I love the structure of this one, how the narrative is essentially mirrored and the ways in which Snow White's and Ravenna's thoughts mirror and don't mirror each other; I lovelovelove Snow White's, how a child's hope turns into resentment and then - because Snow White - into curiosity and even the desire to understand, and I love Ravenna's detachedness, strength and self-deception at the same time. UGH SO AWESOME.

Drive-by post to say: SO EXCITE. There were some actual bears this year, because my December got eaten by RL, but I made the deadline with time to spare and had the chance to make some edits! And now I have a gift that I'm SUPER LOOKING FORWARD TO (I can't help it, I love to shake presents) and a Madness treat and I'M JUST SO HAPPY. YAY YULETIDE.

By contrast, I have almost nothing whatsoever to say about Sleepy Hollow because basically I'm just enjoying the ride. (I haven't seen the most recent ep, I don't think.) Are there plot holes? Sure there are! But the more recent episodes have been much less faily than the first couple, and ABBIE. ABBIE AND JENNY. ICHABOD. CAPTAIN IRVING. The end. *hands*

I wrote four stories for Yuletide this year, probably because I was so full of nervous energy from signing up that I just couldn't stop with one.

so may the chains fall from your feet (1897 words) by DamkiannaChapters: 1/1Fandom: Dangerous Beauty (1998)Rating: General AudiencesWarning: No Archive Warnings ApplyRelationships: Veronica Franco/Marco VenierCharacters: Veronica Franco, Marco VenierSummary: Stepping out of the Inquisition courthouse brought Veronica to tears. Post-movie: Veronica and Marco, and the things that come after.

My assignment fic! For Shadowcat, who wanted, terrifyingly, "a happy scene" - nothing like my usual epics at all! But I did my best and I think it turned out fairly well; it was definitely a bit tough for me, but I got to rewatch the movie and read all about Veronica Franco, and overall it was a lovely first Yuletide assignment.

And! I would like to re-advertise my gift, plus the extra Madness snippet I received: Sheeana wrote me both the gorgeous 24k Empress of Sand and Water, in which Chani is the Mahdi, Irulan is sent to Arrakis by her father, and they get married and share Paul and save the universe; and the much shorter but equally lovely Water-Envy, Chani and Irulan by the ocean. I am just overwhelmed with joy, they are fantastic stories and there is even a chance of a sequel! ♥.♥ I CAN'T. THE HAPPIEST BEARS.

And now to bed; I was up until about 3 a.m. washing New Year's dishes and woke much earlier than I would have liked today, so I am totally exhausted in the best way.

Today has been a whirlwind of awesome and I've spent half of it asleep - I haven't had a chance to delve properly into the Yuletide archive, but I have had the chance to read my gift:

Empress of Sand and Water (24166 words) by AnonymousChapters: 1/1Fandom: Dune Series - Frank HerbertRating: Teen And Up AudiencesWarning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive WarningsRelationships: Paul Atreides/Chani/Irulan CorrinoCharacters: Irulan Corrino, Paul Atreides, ChaniSummary: After the Harkonnen attack on the Atreides, Irulan is sent to Arrakis to represent the emperor's interests. She hears about this mysterious figure, this Fremen messiah, this Mahdi - and she wonders if this might be the turning point of everything. Canon-divergent AU of Dune.

IT IS THE MOST AMAZING FIC IN THE WORLD AND I LOVE IT. For the first Yuletide gift I will ever receive, this is the most tremendous and beautiful and fantastic story in the world; it is exactly what I wanted and someone wrote it for me and it's just. I CAN'T. ♥ If you are at all a Dune fan I urge you to give it a look (a long look, IT IS 24K WORDS), it is Irulan and Chani and Paul and things are the same but different and Chani is the Mahdi and it's PERFECT.